“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity” Proverbs 11:3.

Not long after I leased an apartment in New York City, my agent asked me to go on a “request casting” for a popular body-wash campaign. A request casting means it is closed to other models and only requested models can audition. My chances are always better when I have been preselected, and it didn’t hurt that it paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 for the job.

There was just one catch. I would be in the shower, and although no nudity would be seen for the commercial spot, I would have to be naked while it was being shot. The crew wanted to be sure underwear or a swimsuit wouldn’t interfere with the filming of a bare back, thigh, or stomach. Let me be clear, this was not a closed set. And there are no less than thirty to sixty men and women on a commercial shoot. Trust me, I didn’t have to think this through. The answer was no. I turned down the casting.

I’m sure none of my church friends would have known that an entire film crew would have actually seen me naked–if they saw the finished advertisement, they would probably just assume it was some tricky videography.

“Duplicity” refers to being two different versions of yourself. I could have been theChristian me, in front of the church crowds I speak in front of, and the professional mecould have done the shoot. But God gave me the courage to say “no” to taking off my clothes and “yes” to taking off my mask.